tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227211082018-08-28T22:10:24.024+12:00TheRasmus.dk - COMMENTS ARE WELCOME! :O)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-15067992430235514732007-08-14T09:25:00.000+12:002007-08-20T09:34:58.603+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Start spreading the news... I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it... <U>New York, New York!</U></B><br /><P><br />No kidding. Despite my many prejudices about the United States and my massive dislike of their culture and (lack of) social system, I bought myself a bus ticket to New York City! And what a trip!<br /><P><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100499745403140562"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rsidfq25edI/AAAAAAAAB1s/X9vSx54_MDM/s400/IMG_5975.jpg" /></a><br /><P><br />It took me three attempts to get to New York. I wanted to leave on Friday night, but after calling 15 different hostels that were all fully booked, I gave up and decided to wait a day. So I went to the bus terminal on Saturday night, looking forward to see NYC. Seemed like some higher powers didn't want me to go leave though - I never got on the bus, they wouldn't even sell me a ticket because an extraordinary mob of people who wanted to go to NYC had showed up before I did, so after spending an hour at the bus terminal the bus left without me and I had to spend money on a cab ride back to OJ's place... F*ck. So on my last attempt on Sunday, I arrived two hours ahead and bought the ticket. Incredibly, they once again managed to fill another bus with passengers, myself not among them, leaving about 40 people still standing in line when the bus left. This time they showed a little more competence though, and arranged another bus within half an hour, so finally, I was on my way to New York... But not without being yelled at by a stupid old fat ugly bitch of a bus driver who claimed I didn't have the right papers to cross the border, who said nothing but "Hrmpf, get on the bus" when her co-worker corrected her and told her that my papers were fine and my EU passport was all I needed. Grrrr.<br /><P><br />At the US border two hours later, a very bossy immigration officer stamped my passport after I had filled out and signed a form to confirm that:<br /><UL><br /> <LI>I was, in fact, not a terrorist, and I didn't enter the United States with the intention of terrorist activity.<br /> <LI>I never tried to hide and/or refuse to hand over a child that had been adopted to the US.<br /> <LI>A few more priceless things which I sadly have forgotten :)<br /></UL><br />Wonder if anyone ever answered "yes" to the terrorist question? :O)<br /><P><br />Luckily, the gruesome giantess of a bus driver was replaced by a friendly and cheerful American man at the border. Getting a new driver, crossing the border without problems, and having two seats for my fat ass when the rather chubby American woman who sat next to me got of the bus in Buffalo made everything look brighter. Great success! <br /><P><br />My first place I to set foot in within the States was the town of Syracuse, where we stopped for about 20 minutes at four in the morning. This was where I had my first bite of American food, at <font color="#FF3399"><B>Dunkin Donuts</B></font> - welcome to the U-S-and-A! :-D I dozed off as pretty much the minute I got back on the bus, and woke up several hours later to the beautiful sight of the New York City skyline! After getting of the bus at a really noisy underground bus station, I grabbed my bags and walked about 12 blocks down to <I>1291 Bed & Breakfast</I>, a cosy Swiss-owned, but very expensive (45 USD per night) hostel, where I dropped off my stuff and went for a walk in the city that never sleeps :) I randomly ended up going to Central Park at first - a park that's just as big as the impression movies and books gives you. My personal reference to Central Park is from a chapter in the book <I>Hannibal</I> where Dr. Lecter stalks the ignorant Clarice Starling when she's jogging - but anyway :) It's a huge park with <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100498340948833058">roads</A> going though it, most of them only for skaters, bicyclists and horse riders. Once again wish I had brought my roller blades :) After walking around the park for a bit, I found the place I was looking for: <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100498340948833058">Strawberry Fields</A> - the John Lennon Memorial, sitting right across the road from the place he was shot in 1980. It felt really nice to see memorial and just stand there and pay your respect with the rest of the mob who were standing in silence, or quitely humming <I>Imagine</I> :)<br /><P><br />Other than that, I won't bother telling boring details about the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building or whatever - the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity">150 pictures</A> in the gallery should tell the story just fine. Instead I'll try to describe how cool it was to walk around on the streets you've seen in so many movies and TV-series, read about in books or heard about in school. Walking past the place where they host the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100498916474451442">David Letterman show</A>, watching all the crazy advertisement displays on Times Square and all the yellow cabs is just the beginning. There are some things on Earth that you only see in huge cities like New York - for example a guy in a <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100498955129157170">convertible with a full computer office setup</A> instead of a passenger seat :-)<br /><P><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100499010963732082"><img src="http://lh5.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rsic0625dnI/AAAAAAAABuw/hKUo-ImbV9I/s400/IMG_5852.jpg" /></a><br /><P><br />Another quite extraordinary thing happened, which I dare say is another one of those things you only experience in cities like New York. I was at Times Square taking night photographs with my SLR and tripod, when I suddenly, among all the other noises from cars, clubs, TV-screens etc., heard what I thought was some guy in a car playing Ozzy Osbourne seriously loud on his stereo. Turned me head and realized I was wrong - <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NewYorkCity/photo#5100499131222816514">Ozzy Osbourne and band</A> was playing live on the roof of Hard Rock Cafe! AWESOME! 8-)<br /><P><br />To me, another great experience was meeting and having a chat with Afro-Americans. It's kind of funny how you sometimes meet (white) people who dress and talk as if they are black and bad ass. When you meet the real thing (though most of them are friendly and down-to-earth and not at all bad ass), they don't seem to be so silly and ridiculous :) It is however, very, very, sad that pretty much all the low-status workers, such as street sweepers, cleaners etc. you see are black. Come on, this is 2007, even USA ought to have ethnic equality by now. <br /><P><br />I wouldn't say the Americans were absolutely lovely people, but they really were very nice, though a lot of the them seemed a bit remote, as if they were putting too much effort into searching for something... Whether it was the almighty Lord Jesus, a masters degree or a pay rise I'm not too sure. But they really were nice people, though evidently not very worldly. Not as open-minded and friendly as e.g. Canadians, Aussies or Kiwis. Now that I think of it, it might have to do with the infamous American dream... Survival of the fittest, maybe they put all their energy into their work because they are striving to archive something. Like I just said, I don't know precisely what, and I'm not too sure they know it either. And now that I'm a bit rude already, it really is true that there is loads of fat people everywhere! A lot more than other countries anyways. However, my general impression was that people were either relatively normal build or way to fat. And, especially in New York, you're still able to get healthy food, for example by going to Asian places. But let me give you an example: The <U>reduced fat</U> milk they had in my hostel had 5% fat in it! Quote from the milk jug label: <I>Reduced fat milk - fat reduced from eight to five percent</I>. And yes, it fully tasted like cream when I used it on my morning cereal - YUCK!<br /><P><br />But forgive me for generalizing so badly. Though a lot my prejudices were comfirmed, New York was a totally fantastic experience. I'll <U>highly</U> recommend going there and I would love to come back some day. Would be a blast to go there with a whole bunch of friends, though I'm glad I did it on my own this time, as it was important to me to experience the whole package of getting along and around in NYC, instead of being guided around with your mind all focused on something completely different. Honestly, this trip to the United States might just have been a really important thing for me, as I've always felt I had to see the country I've heard so much about and heard so many opinions about, with my own eyes. But what a city - so much fun!The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-51167324287964262812007-08-11T20:25:00.000+12:002007-08-18T20:34:57.812+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Toronto</B><br /><P><br />Out of the big cities I've visited in Canada, Toronto gave me the best first-hand impression by far. I'm not precisely sure why, but the view of the Skyline I saw on the way from the airport to OJ's place in Downtown definitely had a lot to do with it. The fancy lit 553 metre CN Tower (the world's highest), at least double the height as any of the other buildings, being the most eye-catching part. Driving towards Toronto at night gives you a cool videogameish feeling :)<br /><P><br /><!-- Picture of the CN Tower on either side of the text!! --><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099945063261761890"><img src="http://lh3.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rsapj625crI/AAAAAAAABm4/pjIfEQQFTI8/s400/Copy%20%282%29%20of%20Daylight.jpg" align="left"></a><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099944698189541090"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/rasmuswesth/RsapkK25csI/AAAAAAAABnA/MQJwf27mcss/s400/Copy%20%282%29%20of%20Dark.jpg" align="right"></a>Though OJ has his condo by himself, his place was rather busy the first couple of days I was there, since he had two of his (about 40) cousins staying at his place. His condo on 15th floor was probably the favourite part of my stay in Toronto. Never stayed in a place where the elevator makes your ears pop before :) And definitely not in a place with a perfect <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099944698189541090">view of the CN Tower</A> either. Having eaten a little too much fatty food on the trip so far, I was happy when OJ, Chris and Dave and I went for dinner in Chinatown right after dropping my stuff of at his place.<br /><P><br />While in Toronto, I really didn't do at lot of sightseeing - since I start uni less than 24 hours after I land in Copenhagen next Tuesday, I won't get any time to just chill out and relax for the next while. So since I had a sweet place to stay right downtown with everything I needed within a radius of 500 m, I didn't bother to have any plans whatsoever :) OJ's working as a freelance real estate agent, so he had plenty of time to take me and his two cousins out for some fun. Thursday night we went golfing at a driving range, really good fun and quite convenient for a first-time golfer like me :) Later on one of OJ's other cousins, who joined us at the driving range, took us to a place where we rented a poker table. Might have been beginners luck, but I actually managed to get 2nd place out of seven :) Won five dollars! Wohoo!<br /><P><br />Toronto is definitely a much busier city than e.g. Vancouver, but you still have some options for some outdoor fun - for example the beach which has more <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099945076146663810">volleyball courts</A> than I've ever seen in my life. OJ and I were contended with playing (American) football on the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099945114801369538">beach</A> though.<br /><P><br />Despite my laziness, I did walk all the way to the CN Tower (about 400 metres from the front door, wow!) to go for a elevator ride to the 350 and 450 metre observation decks. Brilliantly, I managed to take about five photos when I got to the 350 m deck, before my camera ran out of battery, even though it had 2/3 bars left - ARGH! Trying to control my temper, I asked one of the guards for help, and luckily, he let me take the elevator down and allowed me to come back once my battery was charged :) I took advantage of this by coming back about 6:30 PM, in time to catch the <A HREF="">sunset over Toronto</A> from the Skypod, the 450 m deck, after standing in line for almost two hours. In relation to this, I would like to thank Apple for developing the iPod video, which made me able to watch brainless but highly amusing Friends episodes for an hour and a half while I waited in line for the 350 m -> 450 m elevator. Though "only" 100 metres higher than the lower observation deck, the Skypod at 450 m was definitely worth the wait. Being 10 metres wide at the most, it felt a lot more like you were hanging on the outside of the tower than the more spacious lower deck with restaurants, shops etc. The combination of my SLR camera, my tripod and the brilliant view was enough to keep me entertained for a good two hours, trying to get some good bird's eye view photos of <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099945037491958066">Toronto by Night</A> :)<br /><BR><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Toronto/photo#5099945037491958066"><img src="http://lh5.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rsak_a25cTI/AAAAAAAABj0/rzA266KqSeU/s400/IMG_5656.jpg" /></a><br /><BR><br />Other than that, I spent my time in Toronto strolling around the busy streets of Downtown, checking out shops, buying a couple of small paintings from a female painter and comic writer and "treating" myself to a horrible haircut by a scary Asian dude. It was cool to be in a huge international city again - first time since my big trip last year. Despite it's population of five million people, it wasn't the biggest for me to visit on this trip - for more details see the next update :)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-88237965021921434712007-08-09T18:34:00.000+12:002007-08-17T18:39:16.450+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NiagaraFalls"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Niagara Falls</B><br /><P><br />Being a brilliant host, O.J. took me for a ride down to Niagara Falls on my first day in Ontario, about 1½ hour drive from his place in Downtown Toronto. The town (which is located right on the border between Canada and USA - though the American part of the town is quite small) itself isn't anything special, pretty much just a place to go loose your money and watch the spectacular waterfalls. But what waterfalls! I've seen waterfalls more than thrice as high in New Zealand, but never anything this powerful! I'll tell you a nerdy fact to give you a bit of perspective: On average, 110,000 m³ runs over the edge every minute, 170,000 m³ during high flow (more nerdy facts on <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls">Wikipedia</A>). When we were standing anywhere near the (Canadian) <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NiagaraFalls/photo#5099550845393530242">Horseshoe Falls</A>, we found ourselves getting soaked by the huge wet cloud it creates.<br /><BR><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NiagaraFalls/photo#5099549853256084578"><img src="http://lh5.google.com/rasmuswesth/RsU9kq25bGI/AAAAAAAABZA/_LTisttJ5WQ/s400/IMG_5390.jpg" /></a><br /><BR><br />Though not as wide and brutal, the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/NiagaraFalls/photo#5099550952767712674">American Falls</A> were quite a sight as well. Mother Nature sure knows her stuff...The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-74434539035262432532007-08-07T20:50:00.000+12:002007-08-16T20:53:58.919+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Lake Louise</B><br /><P><br />Along with the Niagara Falls (coming soon!), Lake Louise was one of the very few sights on my things-I've-got-to-see-in-Canada-list. So on one of the days where Devan had to work anyway, and I felt like I had seen enough of Calgary, I jumped on a Greyhound bus back to the Rocky Mountains, past Banff to the small <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise/photo#5099196781174548674">town of Lake Louise</A>.<br /><P><br /><img src="http://lh5.google.com/rasmuswesth/RsP9sK25aVI/AAAAAAAABRI/ryZ3eZTCjz0/IMG_5152.jpg?imgmax=288" title="Cute, huh? :)" align="right"><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise/photo#5099198065369770306">The lake </A>itself was about and hour hike uphill, through the woods and across <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise/photo#5099197030282651874">rivers</A>, from town, and it was well worth the walk :) Went hiking for a couple of hours around the lake and up the surrounding hills and mountains, which made me able to get reasonably close to the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise/photo#5099200646645115538">snowy mountains</A> and away from the crowds. Anyway, a picture says more than a thousand words, so <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/LakeLouise">check them out</A>.<br /><P><br />Lake Louise was worth the trip, even though there were way too many tourists and I once again found myself in DESPERATE NEED of a wide angle lens (donations appreciated) :-)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-74097675058089427662007-08-04T20:24:00.000+12:002007-08-16T20:54:50.219+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Jurassic Park</B><br /><P><br />... not quite, but it's probably the closest you'll ever get. Two hours away from Calgary lies the town of Drumheller, a very, very countrytown-ish place that's famous for it's surrounding landscape the fact that it's (along with Dinosaur Provincial Park) one of places with the most dinosaur fossils in the world. And <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099185257777292434">the rocky landscape</A> really feels like a place where dinosaurs used to hang out. It is also the home of a huge dinosaur museum.<br /><P><br />People gotta eat, so we went for lunch at a small cafe Devans grand aunt and grand uncle owned, a place with decoration so hilarious and shameless it reminded me a lot of the pubs in the Australian Outback. Take for example the <A HREF="">singing fish</A> or the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099186460368135506">Ukranian chainsaw</A>. But the place's size doesn't neccesarily equal small portions. At least, I thought that <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099185502590428354">my sub</A> was resonably sized :) They also made six foot (1,82 m) family versions... Bon appetit. <br /><P><br /><img src="http://lh4.google.com/rasmuswesth/RsPzL625ZWI/AAAAAAAABJI/LZdxfElhU8I/IMG_4896.jpg?imgmax=400" title="YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAA!" align="left">The clothing stores in Drumheller sort of resembled the Outback Australia ones as well, though not as wild west(h) and cowboy-ish. Devan introduced me to the term <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099186980059178386">rig pigs</A>, (people working oil rigs). I gotta admit that I really liked the hat, though :O)<br /><P><br />The Royal Tyrell museum was probably the best museum I've ever been to. Normally when I'm at museums, I enjoy myself, but tend to get bored and claustophobic after a little while. But in this place, you can easily walk around for a whole day without seeing it all. Very insightful and well-structured. Absolutely brilliant. Won't bother going into details about speficic dinosaurs, so check out the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller">photos</A> if you want a little preview :)<br /><P><br />Before heading back hom we went for ride on Dinosaur Trail (quite cheesy name), a scenic route around the area with some cool views of the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099194148359595874">Calgary Badlands</A>. Finally, we stopped by <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Drumheller/photo#5099196119749584978">the Hoodoos</A>, some interesting mushroom-shaped eroded rocks - though both Devan and I were a bit dissapointed by the size and amount of them. But despite that, I'll highly recommend Drumheller, and especially the museum, to anyone visiting Alberta.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-11651917905114179472007-08-03T09:54:00.000+12:002007-08-14T10:07:57.558+12:00<B>W</B>hen they charge you more than 30 dollars per night for a lousy dorm room in a crappy hostel, low-budget backpackers like yours truly don't stick around for too long. No worries though, it's all about knowing people who won't mind having a mattress in their living room. It's actually the secret to how I can afford to travel Canada for a month...<br /><P><br /><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A>This was also how I sorted out my accommodation in Calgary, where I stayed with <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097947740664228482">Devan</A> in his <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097947968297495218">house</A>. The night I got there, we took the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097948333369715426">bus</A> to the local <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097948178750892754">bar</A> after getting money off the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097948883125529394">bank</A>, buying stamps at the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097947835153509010">post office</A>, and stopping by his <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/HeritageVillage/photo#5097947895283051170">friend's house</A>. <br /><P><br /><img src="http://lh5.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rr-PYsXL7HI/AAAAAAAABHA/Ez1-tpAx8ls/IMG_4799.jpg?imgmax=400" title="Eau Claire Park"><br /><P><br /><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Calgary"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A>In Calgary (the real Calgary, not Calgary Heritage Park :)), I had the convenience of borrowing Devans mountain bike which I took for a couple of rides through downtown and a couple of parks. Great to be able to rip around on a mountain bike again, my screwed-up knee didn't even annoy me that much. I wouldn't say that Calgary is unique in anyway, although you might have a hard time finding a city with more construction - everything is being demolished and rebuilt due to the oil wealth. For example the condo Devan has bought, which is no more than a hole in the ground at the moment. It does, however, have an amazing <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Calgary/photo#5097952125825838418">skate park</A> and a couple of nice little parks full of <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Calgary/photo#5097951129393425538">Canada Geese</A> and people ready Harry Potter ;-)<br /><P><br /><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/AtWorkWithDevan"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/AtWorkWithDevan/photo#5097967763801763442">Devan</A> and his occupation fits right into Calgary, as he works for his dad driving heavy equipment at construction sites. On friday I got up reeeeeeealy early in the morning and joined him as a co-pilot in an 18-speed water truck. I had a go driving the truck for like 20 minutes, which taught me that shifting 18-speed gearboxes require a bit of practise :)<br /><P><br />Devan recommended a <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Calgary/photo#5097962923373620706">bike</A> ride on <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Calgary/photo#5097962923373620706">Nose Hill</A> in Calgary, a pretty big nature reserve, with lots of hills, drops and bums. Really good fun! Not as steep as our mountain bike trail at home, but it was decent, and the good thing about Nose Hill is that there's not that many trees to crash into :-D<br /><P><br />More to come...The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-38425602877634648762007-07-31T06:02:00.000+12:002007-08-14T10:07:06.185+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B><I>Bear</I> with me...</B><br /><P><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff/photo#5097116187751082274"><img src="http://lh6.google.com/rasmuswesth/RryYKsXL6SI/AAAAAAAAA48/fF1SODTorq0/s288/IMG_4659.jpg" align="left"/></a>... but I got to tell you this before I tell you anything else! I f*cking saw a wild Brown Bear with my own eyes, when I was all by myself in the bushes. I had went for a 12 km hike by myself along Spray River, and met nothing but two mountain bikers, birds and dragon flies so far. As I strolled up the path, I was enjoying the quietness of the forest and I might have been daydreaming at little bit when I suddenly saw the bushes move about 20 metres away. At first I only thought it was a dear or something, but then a very furry head with pointy ears poked out of the bushes. My body instantly froze and my heart started thumping hard, as I realised I was looking at a fully grown-up Brown Bear. It was scary, but at the same time extremely fascinating! I couldn't get myself to back away slowly as the tourist brochures tells you to do, but nor did I want to get more than a few metres closer to the big beast. It didn't seem like the bear noticed my presence at all. In the ten minutes I stood and stared at it, it only looked in my direction once and either didn't see me or didn't care. He or she was probably to busy eating berries of the bushes. After ten minutes, I lost sight of the animal as it walked in the other direction, away from me, which left me standing all my myself in a forest halfway across the world thinking: "WOW". I did pull out my camera, but to be honest, I did not have the nerves (or the stupidity, some might say) to concentrate on taking photos. So sadly the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff/photo#5095372950719947138">photo</A>'s are pretty poopy. All you can see is a bit of fur or a set of ears. The single moment where I saw the whole animal only lasted for a few seconds, and sudden movements (such as pulling out your camera) probably isn't advisable when you're standing face-to-face with a bear :) Secretly, this is a dream come true! It was the one thing I was hoping to see, though it's a relatively rare sight - and I did!!! An experience quite different from watching bears in Copenhagen Zoo, I tell ya! :O) The rest of the hike was just as nice and peaceful as the first part, before encountering the bear, had been. Check the gallery for photos of good scenery and cute little chipmunks. <br /><P><br />Hopping off in Banff has turned out to be a really good idea. I really needed some time all by myself, and I daresay a quiet 12 km walk through the woods, just you and nature, is indeed a very good method of obtaining inner peace... Even though you might get your pulse multiplied by three at the sight of a Brown Bear :-D<br /><P><br />Back in my dormitory room at Banff Y Mountain Lodge, the Dutch from my room told me a female backpacker had gotten killed by a Grizzly (an aggressive cousin of the Brown Bear) the previous day :-| I'm glad the bear I met was a bit more friendly...<br /><P><br />After a good organic breakfast at the <I>Wild Flour Cafe</I> next morning, plus a photo session with some friendly <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff/photo#5097112683057768370">locals</A>, I took the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff/photo#5097113834109003778">Gondola</A> to the top of ??? Mountain for some breathtaking views of <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Banff/photo#5097116436859185474">Banff</A> and the surrounding mountains. Banff really is a gorgeous place - the town (despite all the construction) is a really cosy place to be, much nicer than it's rival ski resort, Whistler. Definitely worth visiting when you're on your way Calgary.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-53448647991456568532007-07-28T14:30:00.000+12:002007-08-14T10:06:42.087+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vernon"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Vernon</B><br /><P><br />After almost a week in Vancouver, it was time to leave and head off to Vernon instead, to meet up with Curt and Nicole. Friday morning, I jumped on a <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/BusRideFromVancouverToVernon/photo#5095392179288532498">bus</A> to Kelowna. Devan wanted to pick me up in Kelowna because he had a friend there, so I drove from Kelowna to Vernon with him instead of going all the way to Vernon with the bus. When we got to Vernon, we couldn't get a hold of neither Curt nor Nicole, so we drove by Nicole's work, her dad's surf shop, and said hi instead. Shortly after, <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vernon/photo#5095386832054248482">Curt</A> had learned how to use his phone and called us :) We met up with him at his house. Happy reunions, but it really is a strange feeling to drop by your old travel buddies' home while and see them in their "normal" life. Nothing wrong with that, but it is very different from the two last places we hung out: East Bundy Backpackers in Bundaberg, Australia where we all were fruit-picking slaves and Koh Lanta in Thailand where we ripped around on scooters, snorkeled, drank Sang Sum buckets and stuffed ourselves with cheap food. <br /><P><br />Devan and I each got our own room in Curt's parents' place, a sweet house overlooking the lake. At night we went to Nicole's friend Rebecca's birthday party, where <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vernon/photo#5095387205716403426">Curt</A> passed out on the lawn after too much Guitar Hero and Jack Daniel's. Quite good fun for a Dane like me to crash a house party in a random country town in Canada... :)<br /><P><br />Fallon flew from Vancouver and joined us the next day, when we were curing our hangovers with bacon, hash browns and eggs at a local breakfast restaurant. We spent the afternoon at a local beach floating on <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vernon/photo#5095387493479212386">air mattresses</A> and getting ourselves sunburned. At night, we went to a local restaurant for dinner and to the bar Curt works at afterwards. I have no idea how those country town folks can keep drinking several times each weekend... People in Vernon seem to be quite simple. Work all week -> Sunbathe/Snow board -> Drink -> Work all week... Although they live in a beautiful place, I would go nuts if I lived there, grow tired of recognizing all the faces you see on the street and miss all stuff a city has to offer. <br /><P><br />On Sunday, <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vernon/photo#5095407623990929122">we</A> went floating down a river about an hour west of Vernon. It was a cool and fun thing to do, especially since it was about 30 degrees and the scenery was nice. Although it took 4-5 hours, which was way to long. Sucks I forgot my camera at Curt's place :( But what sucked a whole lot more was that we were delayed several hours by some dumb locals who were coming along, which resulted in us leaving way to late. Way to late to enjoy the insanely beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountains we were meant to drive through in daylight, on our way to Devan's place in Calgary, Alberta. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't right pissed off about it. So was Devan, who had even hired a car to take me on a guided tour through the Rockys. GRRRRRRRRR... F*CK.<br /><P><br />I spontaneously changed my plans a little bit on the way back, and jumped off in Banff instead of going to Calgary with Devan. Fortunately, he happened to know a hostel, where I checked in at half past one in the morning... It must have been three in the morning before Devan made it back home. Sucks he has to be a work at 7 PM :-| Going to spend a day or two in Banff, feel like spending some "Quality Rasmus time&trade;" in the Rocky Mountains :)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-36504389831529807602007-07-25T22:36:00.000+12:002007-08-02T05:52:49.576+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/CelebrationofLightFireworksShow"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Celebration of Light</B><br /><P><br />Every summer the Vancouverites are spoiled with first-class eye candy: The Celebration of Light fireworks show. A three million dollar budget and three competitors: Spain, China and Canada. Four nights of amazing shows of fireworks accompanied by music; one for each country and one final with all three. Tonight's host: Spain. Approximately 300.000 people came to see the show, standing shoulder-to-shoulder all the way around False Creek. <br /><P><br />Seth and I randomly discussed how awesome it would be if they used the Star Wars theme, and guess what they used as both intro and outro? All three of us were completely blown away - all 25 minutes of the show was a work of art. I thought I had seen the craziest fireworks ever in Phnom Penh i Cambodia, but I was definitely wrong. 300.000 people stood and stared as if they were hypnotized, taking in every loud <I>boom</I>, every song and every colorful explosion above all the boats in the water.<br /><P><br />Check out the videos (and the photos) - the long Enya video and the Grand Finale are the best ones by far: <br /><P><br /><B>Star Wars intro</B> (sorry about the shaking, Fallon's unsteady hands were holding the camera :O))<BR><br /><object width="420" height="332"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Mh1zJ1MPVZg"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Mh1zJ1MPVZg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="332"> </embed> </object><br /><P><br /><B>A short and a bit crappy video</B><BR><br /><object width="420" height="332"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3aiQxgZ4UF4"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3aiQxgZ4UF4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="332"> </embed> </object><br /><P><br /><B>Enya</B><BR><br /><object width="420" height="332"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksTNMgh6WyM"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksTNMgh6WyM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="332"> </embed> </object><br /><P><br /><B>Grand finale</B><BR><br /><object width="420" height="332"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nbiv5QKXYbo"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nbiv5QKXYbo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="332"> </embed> </object><br /><P><br />This is the first time I'm using YouTube, so please let me know if there's any trouble with the videos. Enjoy.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-88758087282833766672007-07-25T17:15:00.000+12:002007-08-02T05:53:37.595+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/Vancouver"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Here Comes the Sun</B><br /><P><br />As we speak, I am sitting on the beach in English Bay, it's about 25 degrees and the sun is shining from a clear blue sky. Brought my laptop, as I thought it would be nice to write my blog out here :) Some nice or ignorant person even left his/her wireless network open, so I have Internet access as well. Not bad.<br /><P><br /><img src="http://lh6.google.com/rasmuswesth/Rqmn4cXL3wI/AAAAAAAAAi0/REMzCIkGvpA/IMG_4340.jpg?imgmax=400" title="Took this picture from where I was sitting with the laptop :)"><br /><P><br />The evil dark clouds finally started to retreat on Monday, and we've had glorious weather ever since. Slowly, I have started to understand why people love this city so much. From the beach I'm currently sitting on, I can see both skyscrapers, hundreds of Vancouverites reading, napping or chilling in the sand, the ocean, huge trees and snowy mountains - all at the same time. People here are just like I expected them to be: Extremely down-to-earth, cool and friendly. Vancouver is a very multicultural city - all sorts of people live here. Asians, Greeks, Italians etc. etc. But the interesting thing about it is that the multiculturalism actually works. Unlike at home, each nationality or race is not isolated into it's own little ghetto. The many heritages also gives Vancouver a wide range of delicious foreign food for cheap - not like Australia where could only choose between fish 'n' chips and... fish 'n' chips. <br /><P><br /><A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/WhistlerTour"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A>On Monday afternoon Fallon and Seth took me for a ride to <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/WhistlerTour">Whistler</A>, possibly one of the worlds most popular resort for year-round skiing, mountain biking and other sorts of mountain activities. Sadly the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains were still hidden behind clouds, but no matter, the scenery on the way up there was stunning! After just 20 minutes of driving, we had an awesome view over all the islands in <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/WhistlerTour/photo#5091773987169228466">Howe Sound</A>. I kind off see why people compare Canada to New Zealand. The town of Whistler itself was the typical ski resort like we know them in Europe: Lots of overpriced stuff in the usual "we are all here to have fun"-atmosphere. Even though you actually can ski in Whistler during the summer, most people rip around on downhill mountain bikes. From the bottom of the huge <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/WhistlerTour/photo#5091774150377985970">mountain bike trail</A>, we saw some pretty talented riders doing back flips and other stunts, quite entertaining to watch. After treating ourselves to a decent dinner and a couple of drinks, we headed back to <I>The Bloody Baron</I> aka Seth's old Pontiac Grand Am (we named it after reading HP7). Now, I should explain that Seth got this car for free from a guy he works with. It has been sitting in a back yard for two years, it's extremely dirty, the engine reeks so much you have to leave the window open in order to be able to breathe, only one of the windows can actually open and you can start the engine without a key. Seth was a bit worried the car couldn't handle two hours of driving up a mountain, with good reason. But it went fine! So no reasons to worry about the car not making it all the way back. Wrong. We got held up by roadwork crews several times for twenty minutes at the time, and when one of them finally let us through after half an hour the stupid car wouldn't start. So Miss Roadwork Crew Supervisor helped us get the car out of the way and told us we might as well call road service since they weren't able to help us out. Luckily, the first passing car we signaled for help pulled over and we got the car started using jumper cables. The car kept going all the way home, but it had started to make a clacking noise which grew louder and louder as we moved on. When we made it back to Vancouver city, four hours after leaving Whistler, the engine was so loud that everyone turned around staring at us :) To no ones big surprise, the car broke down completely when Seth drove it to work on Tuesday. It was towed away to the scrap yard today, so may the <A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/WhistlerTour/photo#5091774210507528210">Bloody Baron</A> rest in peace.<br /><P><br />Tuesday night I met up with Morgan, my faithful travel buddy through Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Surprisingly, she dared to meet up with me again even though lured her into joining me on the bike trip in Vietnam where she, as she puts it herself, nearly died a couple of times :) Morgan does indoor climbing now and then, so she invited me to come and have a go. Maybe she was planning on cutting the rope while I was hanging 10 metres above the ground...? Anyway, I had superb fun! Might have found myself a new hobby...<br /><P><br />To compensate a bit for the exercise I had the night before, I went to Granville Island Brewery with Seth the next day. We took a tour of the so-called micro brewery, were taught about the whole process of brewing. Nice little tour followed by a couple of tasters afterwards. There's nothing like a good local beer...The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-61727626562134824772007-07-24T09:22:00.001+12:002007-07-24T09:56:29.111+12:00<A HREF="http://picasaweb.google.com/rasmuswesth/TheWetCoast"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>The Wet Coast</B><br /><p><br />The rain has been pouring over Vancouver pretty much constantly ever since I got here. Quite bad luck, considering the fact that they've just had a heat wave for serveral weeks. It was no biggie at first, since all three of us were reading Harry Potter (which by the way, is the most amazingly gripping book ever), but now that we are finished and I'm about to realize that I'm actually in Canada and I should go see something, I wouldn't mind a clear blue sky. Vancouver is not really an indoor city.<br /><p><br />More to come when the sun returns. Until then, click the little camera in the corner and check out the few photos I uploaded. This time, I'll try using Google's photo sharing service and see how it goes.<br /><p><br />Rasmus out.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-68433935785478560092007-07-20T17:38:00.000+12:002007-07-24T10:05:13.327+12:00<b>Leaving on a Jet Plane</b><br /><p><br />I wake suddenly, felling like I've been drooling all over myself in my sleep. My jaw suddenly drops as I take a quick glimpse out the window. Majestic mountains covered in snow, for as far as the eye can see. Must have been sleeping all the way across the Atlantic. The plane is indeed approaching Canada. <br /><p><br />Fallon and Seth are picking me up in Vancouver airport. I cross my fingers and hope they are aware of the two-hour delay we had in Heathrow due to a massive amount of traffic. Just finished the last chapter of <I>Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince</I>. Great book, even when you read it for the second time within a few months. I'm am now ready to line up at the book store with Seth and Fallon, to get our hands our own copies of <I>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows</I>. Can't decided what I'm most excited about - getting the book or finally setting foot on Canadian ground. All I know is that it's bound to be an awesome evening. But I've got to wait another hour before we land. Until then, I'll enjoy the sound of Muse in my ears, and the ice cream the stewardess with fake boobs and way too much lipstick just served me.<br /></p><p><br />Another adventure begins.</p>The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-20050204778685846732007-04-21T12:30:00.001+12:002007-04-21T12:30:40.377+12:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Good Morning, Vietnam</B><BR><br />12th of October 2006 - 16th of October 2006<br /><P><br /><!-- Screen shot of Hanoi on the map --><br />Despite a missed flight, I managed go make my way to Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, 17 hours later than planned. When I landed, I went to the ATM to take out a bunch of cash to get started. Had no idea what the currency was worth, so I took out 100.000 and thought I had heaps. But turned out it wasn't even 40 DKK/7 USD... <I>Oh</I> :) So I took out 1.000.000 instead - I'm a millionaire! <br /><P><br /><I>All text below was written on April 21st, five months later, so bear with me...</I><BR><br />K.L. had honestly made me hate cabdrivers, so I completely refused to take a cab to Hanoi City, and decided to find my own way somehow. I would rather fool around for hours than get ripped of. Luckily and ironically, a bunch of the cabdrivers turned out to be really friendly, and found me a bus to the city. This ride would cost me 5000 dong (2 DKK or 0,40 AUD), even though it took two or three hours (because of all the stops and the crazy traffic)... By the time I was sitting on the bus, and we were on our way, it was clear to me that I was in for another culture shock...! As I was sitting in the bus, with people staring at me (being the only white person on the bus, or on the road we were on for 2-3 hours for that matter) like I was a new animal to the local zoo, I couldn't believe how crazy the traffic was! At first I thought our bus driver was completely bonkers, since he was honking CONSTANTLY. But after a while i realized that everyone did it - the busses, the cars, and most of all: the motorbikes! An unbelievable number of scooters in a big zig-zag mayhem. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Traffic-2.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Traffic-2.jpg" align="RIGHT" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Two or three hours later, I was in the center of Hanoi in the worst traffic I had ever seen! It took me about 15 minutes before I dared to cross the road, plus I had to shake of quite a few hopeful local blokes who were trying to get a new guest for "their friend's hotel". After a short bus ride and a fair bit of walking I got a bit sick of fooling around, so I decided to ask for direction. Obviously, the only "helpful" person around was a cabdriver... F*ck. Anyhow, we agreed on a price (30.000 dong), the guy drove for a little while till we were at Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (I later realized I could have walked there in about five minutes... Damn cabdrivers).<br /><P><br />Coming from the legendary Red Palm Guesthouse, I was quite hard to impress when it came to hostels, but Hanoi Backpackers Hostel turned out to be nothing less than great! Being owned by to crazy Aussies, it had the same standards as the good hostels in Oz, AND it had the same social "come sit down and have a chat over a beer"-kinda atmosphere... Awesome! So... I grabbed myself a beer, sat down and joined the group of happy backpackers exchanging crazy travel stories. At night we went out for a bit of a piss-up at the <I>Bia Hoi</I>, a famous Vietnamese tourist attraction - it's pretty much just a very small shop with a whole lot of very small plastic chairs outside, selling beer for 2000 dong... Less than one Danish krone! Brilliant!<br /><P><br />Policemen in Vietnam aren't very good at their job, or maybe they just don't care. Probably the latter. Later on, when we were in some bar down the street, they suddenly turned off all the lights and music, and told us to shut up. I quickly learned that the bars and cafes aren't allowed to stay open past midnight, hence the shutdown. As soon as the police car had passed the bar, the lights and music went back on. The police came back, but by the look of it, they just couldn't be bothered to "crash our party". Strange. Even though I was with backpackers from westernized countries like myself, staying in an Australian backpackers hostel, everything felt completely new. No doubt I had come to a very, very special place...<br /><P><br />In the early hours of the morning, I was randomly telling a kiwi dude named Gareth about my plans and ideas about what I wanted to do in Vietnam, among these some sort of motorcycle trip on a rented bike, which a guy in Cairns, Australia recommended me. Gareth suddenly looked like he couldn't believe his own ears. "<I>Shit, I've been waiting here for three weeks for someone to join me on a motorcycle ride up north!</I>". Gareth was now happy - he had found someone to do his motorcycle trip with. Few days later, we had found another two - I invited Morgan, and Alex, a Dutch guy from the hostel, heard too much of our excitement and decided to postpone his other plans and join us too. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Stupid Tourist.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Stupid Tourist.jpg" align="LEFT" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400"></a>Other than going out and hanging out, I didn't do a whole lot in Hanoi. However, I did go see the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Temple.jpg">Temple</A> on the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Temple-2.jpg">lake</A> - Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple, which had a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Temple-3.jpg">huge stuffed turtle</A>. Not super exciting, but still a bit interesting at the same time. Naivety overcame me when I was studying a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-12 - 2006-10-16 Hanoi/Statue.jpg">Martyr's monument</A> near the lake. Two Vietnamese fruit-pushers suddenly mounted me with a stupid rice hat and one of the things they use for carrying the fruit they sell, pulled out my camera and took a picture of me. I was keen on buying a bit of pineapple, but definitely NOT keen on paying the 100.000 dong they wanted for the photo. After a bit of discussing and cursing, I threw them a couple of 10.000 notes, grabbed some bananas and pineapple and took off, half laughing at my stupidity ;O)<br /><P><br />Next few days I didn't do a whole lot (hmm, deja-vu? Feel like I've written that a few times on my blog ;)) - mainly because my stomach was a bit, eh... funny, after eating not properly cooked meat with my noodles at a not especially decent food vendor :) But that's the only time I've been a little bit sick on my whole trip so far! On Sunday, we went to the motorcycle rental place and picked up four bikes. Man! I had had one short ride on Mike, the hostel owners, bike, but riding an old Russian two stoke with a manual four speed gearbox through Hanoi during rush hour was quite a challenge... Nevertheless, we survived the ride back to our hostel. We even filled up the bikes at the gas station on our way back :) Morgan arrived late in the afternoon, after quite a fight with a cabdriver who wouldn't stop trying to get her to stay at stupid hotels the cabdriver knew etc. etc... We already had her bike ready, parked in front of the hostel, ready for our big trip the next day! Neither Morgan nor Alex had ever ridden a motorbike before, so they were up for a challenge when we were to leave Hanoi in morning traffic the following day...The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-13240744336105029352007-03-15T22:30:00.000+13:002007-03-16T10:32:37.337+13:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">GREETINGS!</span><br /><br />Don't worry, I will start writing again soon... I hope! I've been quite busy, but I really have to pull myself together and start writing soon.<br /><br />Until then, you can keep yourself amused by checking out the pictures from my ski holidays:<br /><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2007-02-10%20-%202007-02-19%20Skiing%20St%F6ten%20Sweden/">Skiing in Stöten, Sweden</a><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2007-03-03%20-%202007-03-10%20Skiing%20Les%20Deux%20Alpes%20France"><br />Skiing in Les Deux Alpes, France</a><br /><br />Thanks to <span style="font-weight: bold;">stupid </span>Picasa, the pictures (especially the recent ones from France) are rubbish quality, due to Picasas crappy resizing tool :( And for now, it's way too much of a hassle to do it all over again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.<br /><br />Will be back with some glorious tales about Vietnam soon. More ski pictures are yet to come as well, as I'm going to Canazei in Italy during easter.<br /><br />Until then, peace out 8)<br /><br />RasmusThe Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-85633830322325667712006-12-11T00:26:00.000+13:002006-12-11T00:33:40.227+13:00Yeah, my trip came to and end, and I left Asia with my blog completely out-of-date. That's what happens when you have too much fun to sit down in front of the stupid computer. But since I'm now at home, there's some freezing cold winter nights coming up, which will be a great time to sit down and write. I've only been home for five days though, plus I've moved into a new place, so I've got a bit of stuff to do before I can start typing.<br /><br />Patience, my young Padawans.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-63002451143471975142006-11-15T01:35:00.000+13:002006-11-15T01:38:54.264+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-11 - 2006-10-12 5-Star Hotel/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Oops... Missed my flight!</B><BR><br />11th of October 2006 - 12th of October 2006<br /><P><br /><!-- Screen shot of K.L. --><br />Short blog entry, for once. When Morgan and I came back to K.L., I had a flight at 17:00 the same day, which was no problem, even though the train was two hours late. Spent a couple of hours hanging out at the Red Palm, and jumped in a cab, early enough to get to the airport in time. But... My cab got stuck in a huge traffic jam, which I kind off should have thought of with the crazy traffic of K.L., but didn't. So when I tried to check in in the airport, the guy behind the counter just said "You are too late", smiled and looked back at his computer screen. No mercy. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-11 - 2006-10-12 5-Star Hotel/Hotel 7.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Hotel 7.jpg" align="RIGHT" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do you do in a situation like that? Well, you call your excellent insurance company and explain the situation. Then they tell you that they are going to cover your missed flight, and book you on to the very next flight going from Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi. When it turns there's no flights going until next morning, they check you in to a 5-star hotel for the night, and your completely miserable day turns out to be a good day after all. A very good day indeed. Because you have been backpacking for eight months, you have been sleeping in bunks in rooms with seven other stinky, snoring people. And the only time you have privacy is when you go to the bathroom... If you're lucky. So once you're in <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-11 - 2006-10-12 5-Star Hotel/Hotel 1.jpg">your room</A>, and you realize that you actually ARE staying in a 5-star hotel, for free, you grin from ear to ear. The smile doesn't wear of when you eat the biggest buffet you've had in your life, either. Neither does it wear of when you realize the hotel has a gym, when discover that your room has a huge bath tub - or when you get the biggest breakfast buffet in your entire life next morning. No, you leave the hotel as a happy camper, check in at the Malaysian Airlines desk and board your new flight.<br /><P><br />Then you smile and realize that the "ridiculous amount of money" you paid for your travel insurance wasn't a total waste after all.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-14005677713248812862006-11-14T01:29:00.000+13:002006-11-14T04:10:39.739+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Welcome to the Jungle!</B><BR><br />7th of October 2006 - 10th of October 2006<br /><P><br /><!-- Screen shot of Taman Negara --><br />When I (finally) escaped from Singapore, I went back K.L. to hang out with Vinnie, Reena, Naim and Micha for a few days before they left Malaysia, going separate ways. Then after another pleasant stay at the <A HREF="http://www.redpalm-kl.com">Red Palm</A>, Morgan and I made our way to Taman Negara, a huge jungle in the middle of Malaysia, and apparently, with it's about 130.000.000 years of age, the world's oldest. To get there, we went on a bus followed by a three hour boat ride on the river, in a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Boat Ride 1.jpg">cool boat</A>! Those boats are wicked, they are the perfect river boat and they are even comfortable enough to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Boat Ride 5.jpg">sleep in</A>. After three hours of cruising, spotting monkeys and colourful birds and sleeping, we arrived in Kuala Tahan, a little town in the middle of the jungle. There was no doubt we had come to a pretty <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Floating Restaurants.jpg">special place</A>, with most houses etc. right by the river - and as you can see, restaurants and cafes floating on the river itself.<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Night Safari 3.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Night Safari 3.jpg" align="RIGHT" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>On our first night, we went on a night safari in, or rather <B>on</B> a four-wheel drive, as we were sitting on the roof :) First animals we managed to spot were a couple of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Night Safari 1.jpg">birds</A> followed by a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Night Safari 3.jpg">snake</A>. Then for a while, we didn't see a whole lot, but I didn't mind - I had plenty of fun sitting on the roof, dodging the palm branches and listening to all the noises you hear in the jungle at night. Suddenly, our guide spotted something sneaking around in the high grass - a leopard cat! Unfortunately, it was way to dark to take photos of it, but I assure you it was beautiful :) It looked just like a leopard (or a cheetah), except it was only the size of a big house cat. On the way home, we saw a really funny animal crawling on the aerial cables - a Slow Loris! Hard to describe it, but it is sort off a cross between a squirrel and a monkey, except it moves very slowly - as you can see on the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Slow Loris.wmv">video</A>. Pretty cool. Oh yeah... At night I saw some kind of insect (looked like a fly) which was about the size of a tennis ball (both in width, height and length)!<br /><P><br />Next day, it was time for a lot more jungle exploring. We had signed up for a two-day overnight jungle hike, with two guys from the UK, Billy and Andy. First thing we did was take a boat across the river to one of the major attractions in Taman Negara - the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Canopy Walk 07.jpg">canopy walkway</A>! These canopies are suspended about 40 metres above the ground, which gives you an excellent <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Canopy Walk 05.jpg">bird's eye view</A> of the jungle. We also had a great laugh rocking it from side to side :)<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 04.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Jungle Trek 04.jpg" align="left" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Next up was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 02.jpg">boat ride</A> for a couple of hours to the place the hike itself started from. It was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 12.jpg">beautiful</A> ride - the jungle is <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 14.jpg">spectacular</A>. After that, we started <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 17.jpg">walking</A>, while Cha, our guide, showed us stuff on the way - e.g. <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 16.jpg">poisonous trees</A>. Though it was f*cking hot and humid, and we had to climb over a lot of roots etc., I really enjoyed being out on an adventure again... and getting a bit of exercise. And as our two group mates, Billy and Andy both were really nice guys, we were all having a good time... despite all the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Billy the Leech Victim.jpg">leeches</A>. It got even better when we got to a big <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Bat Cave 02.jpg">cave</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Bat Cave 06.jpg">climbed</A> inside the rather creepy place to say hi to the thousands of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Bat Cave 09.jpg">bats</A> who lived there. As the flew around us, flapping their wings all over the place, I kind of felt like Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins when he enters the cave underneath his house and is completely surrounded by bats... But that's just me being a total nerd. Anyway, after another couple of hours of hiking, we arrived at our <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Home Sweet Home 6.jpg">5-star luxury accommodation</A>. It was without doubt the biggest room I've ever slept in :) We did have to share it with a bunch of other guys though... A few bats and and the biggest bloody rats I've seen in my life - size of a small rabbit, about 40 cm long including the tail (plus an <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Elephant Cliff Formation.jpg">elephant</A>). But that's okay - gotta make room for everyone :o) It was pure <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Home Sweet Home 1.jpg">homely comfort</A> at night when we sat around the fire singing kumbaya. Couple of times when I went outside to do a wee-wee, I heard some spooky sneaking noises, sounded like a human sneaking around or something. After hearing it a couple of times, I told the others, and Morgan admitted she had heard it as well, but didn't want to tell us because we would probably just think she was imagining stuff. We never found out what it was, leopard, tiger, monkey, who knows... Spooky! Nevertheless, I slept like a little baby at night, on my mat in the open cave... <br /><P><br />Next morning, after a bit of monkey-spotting outside, breakfast and packing our stuff, we headed off again. Still a very enjoyable hike - <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 20.jpg">huge trees</A> with <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 22.jpg">roots</A> wider than a car, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 28.jpg">dense growth</A> where you had to cut your way though and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Jungle Trek 30.jpg">high tech bridges</A> across the streams. Not surprisingly, the dense vegetation prevented us from spotting elephants, tigers and leopards (they are all there), but we did manage to find both <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Elephant Footprints 2.jpg">elephant footprints</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Elephant Poo 2.jpg">elephant poo-poo</A>! Lucky us! Coming across such a magnificent treasure like elephant droppings was a big moment in my life... It was as if, all of a sudden, my whole life made sense and I no longer had to search for the purpose of human existence on earth... or something. No, mum, we did not eat the funny little colourful mushrooms in the jungle. Morgan turned out to be the new Steve Irwin - she managed to spot both a dead Tarantula and a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Leaf Frog.jpg">Leaf Frog</A>. Eventually, after banging my head on a massive tree hunk, we made our way back to the river, near some old deserted bungalows - one of them completely <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Bungalow After Elephant Stampede.jpg">smashed up</A> by a crazy elephant. This <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Bridge After Elephant Stampede.jpg">bridge</A> wasn't built for to carry elephants either. Anyway, after a boat splashing boat ride, we were back in <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Dorm.jpg">civilization</A>. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Village 12.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Village 12.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a><A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Billy the Kid.jpg">Billy</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Andy the Man.jpg">Andy</A> left early next morning, whereas Morgan and I had an extra day, since we had decided to jump on the night train. We spent the day going on a short <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Short Walk 1.jpg">walking tour</A>, drinking Milo at the cafes and visiting an <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Village 12.jpg">Aboriginal Village</A>! Very interesting. Other than learning about their life and culture, we learned how to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Village 08.jpg">fire a blowpipe</A> and how to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-07 - 2006-10-10 Taman Negara/Village 10.jpg">start a fire</A> from scratch. Wicked! Starting the fire from scratch was actually surprisingly easy, once you had the right stuff - e.g. a special type of dry wood, a string plaited of some kind of palm leaves etc. What wasn't that easy was hitting the god damn target with the blowpipe :O) After about twenty tries, I (and resting the blowpipe on a stump, <I>ehrem</I>) managed to do it though. I was surprised how far you can actually shoot the darts with the blowpipe...! Quality hand craft, the 2 metre bamboo weapon. <br /><P><br />Taman Negara is definitely something you just can't miss out on if you're in Malaysia - it is such a special thing, experiencing a proper big jungle, the wildlife, all the funny noises coming from the trees and the beautiful scenery. It was quite simply tremendous...<br /><P><br />After a horrible minibus journey, a couple of hours waiting in some city, and a even more horrible train ride (the train was absolutely fine, but some poor guy was throwing up ALL NIGHT in one of the bunks next to ours, which did disturb our sleep a little bit), we were back in K.L.!<br /><P><br />Next stop: Hanoi, Vietnam.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1162832560208813512006-11-07T06:02:00.000+13:002006-11-14T01:27:54.216+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Singapore</B><BR><br />2nd of October 2006 - 3rd of October 2006<br /><P><br /><!-- Screen shot of Singapore, with the islands marked on the map --><br />When I left the wonderful Perhentians, I hadn't really made up my mind about where to go next. Not even on the day I was supposed to leave the island. All I knew was that I was going to try the jungle train, and probably go to either the Taman Negara jungle or back to K.L. But then I met a polish couple outside the reception, who were going to Singapore. Turned out it was only about a 14 hour train ride to Singapore, not <B>that</B> much longer than K.L., especially not on a night train. So I spontaneously decided to go to Singapore and check it out. When I left the island, a huge storm was on it's way causing massive waves. The boat ride back to the mainland was the most bumpy (and in some ways, scary) I have ever tried on water - took us one hour and five minutes go get back on the mainland, though it normally only takes about 45 minutes. But we survived :) Back on the mainland, the polish couple i was walking together with had some transportation to the train station, which was about an hour away, sorted out. Or rather, it was meant to be sorted out. The guys at their travel agency didn't speak a lot of English, and it was all very confusing. Eventually, a very nice married Muslim couple took us in their two private cars to an office about 20 minutes our of town. Sitting in the back by myself, I wondered why the hell I decided to go with the polish people instead of just finding my own way to the train station, felt kind of bad for wasting these people's time, but they didn't seem to mind at all. Anyway, when we got to the office, a very nice lady sorted us out with a minibus for a very small amount of money, which took us to the train station, though loads of funny little farmer villages, very interesting actually :) At the train station, only a couple of kilometres from the Thai border, we bought ourselves tickets to the train. Sadly all the sleepers were taken, but we got tickets for normal seats, for a dirt cheap price as well (I love Malaysia). <br /><P><br />Next morning, after a pretty crappy sleep on a train seat, I woke up at the border between Malaysia and Singapore. After going through customs and immigration and a short train ride, we were in the center of Singapore. We had quite a bit of trouble finding the way to the hostel we wanted to stay at, especially because of the polish couple who were arguing constantly about which direction to go (I'm never gonna get married :-P). Even though I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't find my way around, I was quite cheerful, because loads of people on the street randomly asked us if we needed help. Singaporeans seems to be really nice people :) I did have problems though, as none of the ATM's i walked by would take my card. As I had no Singapore dollars, no US dollars, travellers checks or anything, I was kinda f*cked. When the people at the ticket counter for the underground weren't willing to help me out, I decided to go to a bank to see if I had any luck there, so I left the polish couple behind and went back up on the street. After waiting for ONE HOUR in the bank, it was finally my turn. Turned out it was a complete waste of time - all the incompetent lady behind the desk was able to say was "try again". Well, thank you very much... Grrrr!<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-02 - 2006-10-03 Singapore/Sim Lim Square 1.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Sim Lim Square 1.jpg" align="RIGHT" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Then I had a bright idea. Went to a money exchanger, and exchanged 10 Ringgit I had found in my pocket, which gave me the enormous sum of four dollars, which was enough to buy a ticket for the underground to Little India, the area where my hostel was. After having my bags inspected (Singapore have very high safety precautions because of some bombings), I went downstairs to jump on the train. Funny enough, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-02 - 2006-10-03 Singapore/Underground 2.jpg">The underground</A> looked exactly like the one we have in Copenhagen. When I got of in Little India and found my hostel, I had to find a way to get some money, to be able to pay for my hostel and get something to eat. Therefore I decided to call the Danish credit card service. Had one problem though - I had absolutely no money to buy a phone card. Luckily, a very nice Indian guy lent me his phone card so I could get a hold of PBS, the firm who deals with all Danish card transactions. Turned out that every single Danish card, debit card, credit card, Visa, Mastercard, whatever, wasn't working due to technical difficulties - either in Denmark or in the rest of the world. Crap!! Explained my situation, and they made a temporary solution so I could get about 200 dollars out of my Visa card. To do this, I had to ask my receptionist to call the local Visa authorities, which I did, but they didn't seem to be able to work out at all. Craaaaaaaaap. Therefore I went to the nearest bank, who managed to get $200 dollars of my account. Success! I actually only asked for a hundred, but I didn't mind. I was just relieved that I finally had money in my pocket, so I could get something to eat. <br /><P><br />Back at the hostel, I had a chat with some of my roommates, and we tried to find something to see and do. This is when I realized what a shit hole Singapore is - there is nothing interesting to see, really. All the sights are artificial, man-made things, like the worlds biggest man-made waterfall, a zoo etc. Pretty much all you can do in Singapore is go shopping. On top of that, it's a very expensive country - food cost about three or four times the prices I paid for the same in Malaysia. I had already decided to go back to Malaysia the next day. <br /><P><br />We did find something to do though. Quite a bunch of people from the hostel went on a night safari in a park connected to Singapore Zoo. Compared to other zoos, animal parks etc. I've been to, this was actually quite good. We went on a tram ride though the park, with a female guide who sounded just like Count Dracula, according to Morgan, a Canadian girl from my room. No kidding. The park had some quite cool animals, among them flying foxes in a big inclosure you could walk though. At first we weren't able to spot any of them, until one of them zoomed right past us and hit me and the Indian guy :-D Quite cool. Other than that, they had all sorts of big cats, hyenas, bears etc. etc. I'm still not very fond of zoos though - despite this park being quite spacious, I still saw some animals who really behaved like living in captivity had drove them nuts - e.g. one of the hyenas which kept walking around in a circle for at least 20 minutes. Sad :(<br /><P><br />Next morning, I went to the big and famous <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-10-02 - 2006-10-03 Singapore/Sim Lim Square 2.jpg">Sim Lim Square</A> shopping mall, which is meant to be one of the cheapest places in the world to buy electronics. I didn't find it to be that cheap though, compared to some of the places back in K.L. Neither did it have the same big range of products. Enough - time to leave. Just like me and pretty much everyone else, Morgan, the Canadian girl had decided to leave as well. Since she was going to K.L. like I was, we booked ourselves on the same bus. Morgan turned out to be the highlight of my trip to Singapore. After a couple of hours of casual chit chat, I found out she was a huge Top Gear fan like myself. So we spent the next couple of hours on the bus watching Top Gear on my laptop, laughing our asses of, probably annoying all the other passengers... Wicked!<br /><P><br />Anyway - Singapore is definitely just a big city meant for businessmen and other people wearing suits. Though I usually have a very positive attitude towards the places I visit, and always try to make the best of it, it is very possibly the most boring place I have ever been to.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1162817336882682972006-11-07T01:47:00.000+13:002006-11-14T01:27:54.150+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Another day in Paradise...</B><BR><br />26st of September - 1st of October 2006<br /><P><br /><!-- Screen shot of Malaysia, with the islands marked on the map --><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Perhentian Kecil 2.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Perhentian Kecil 2.jpg" align="RIGHT" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Variety is the spice of life. Therefore I had decided to leave the big, noisy and busy city of Kuala Lumpur in favour of the very quiet, laid-back and simple Perhentian Islands. And as we all know, great minds think alike, so the <I>Fantastic Four</I> (Vinnie, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Kuala Besut 04.jpg">Naim, Micha and Reena</A>) we doing the same thing. Moreover, Jim was already there as he left a day earlier. Good stuff. <br /><P><br />All five of us were completely blown away when we saw our night bus that should take us from K.L. to the Perhentians. Despite the price of RM30 (48 DKK/10 AUD), it was the nicest bus we had ever seen, with it's <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Vinnie in bus seat.jpg">huge, wide leather seats</A>. Didn't manage to sleep a whole lot on the bus though, because of the bumpy roads and because we reached our destination, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Kuala Besut 01.jpg">Kuala Besut</A>, at five in the morning. But what sucks even more is that I forgot my beloved Sennheiser headphones on the bus, plus a very gripping Dan Brown book (Digital Fortress). Damn it $#@#£$*#!!!! Anyway, after two hours of waiting at <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Kuala Besut 09.jpg">the jetty</A> we jumped in a boat that took us to Perhentian Kecil (direct translation: Small Perhentian, the smaller of the two Islands. Guess what the other island is called? Yes, Big Island. They must have spent years making those names up). It was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Kuala Besut 07.jpg">beautiful morning</A> to watch the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Kuala Besut 10.jpg">sunrise</A>. If any of us were feeling sleepy still, this was definitely cured by the bumpy speedboat ride! We had a huge laugh <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Boat ride.jpg">sitting in the front</A>, struggling not to fall of (<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Boat ride.wmv">video</A>), until the guy driving the boat told us to get our asses back on our seats. Guess he was tired of saving tourists from drowning :O) Never mind, this made it a bit easier for us to enjoy the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Perhentian Kecil 1.jpg">stunning scenery</A>. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/View from balcony.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/View from balcony.jpg" align="left" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>As we approached the island, we were about to hit the coral reef, so we had to transfer to a smaller boat which took us to the beach. We checked in at <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Suria resort.jpg">Suria Resort</A> in Coral Bay, and got some quite nice rooms that had baloneys with <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/View from balcony.jpg">awesome views</A>! After having a massive breakfast with eggs, fruit, french toast, cereal etc. we did what we had all been waiting for... We went to the beach! Brilliant... I got a bit sunburned though, as I was hanging out on a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Coral Bay 2.jpg">jetty</A> for too long talking to some Canadians. After lunch we went for a ten minute walk though the jungle to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Long Beach 1.jpg">Long Beach</A> on the other side, the more crowded part of the island, to find Jim who was staying here somewhere. When we were about to ask for him at the reception at his resort, we suddenly saw something move. At first, I thought it looked like a turtle because of it's huge back, but it was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Huge Monitor Lizard 1.jpg">massive monitor lizard</A>! It was at least 2 metres long. Holy crap. No luck finding Jim at his resort, but we eventually found him by playing Vin's famous bollocks game (which quite simply means yelling a word, in this case Jim's name, louder and louder for each time you say it) :O) After a few drinks on Long Beach, we all walked back to Coral Bay though the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Jungle walk 2.jpg">jungle</A>. Later on at night, we sat on our balcony and watched a huge thunderstorm, probably the biggest I've ever seen (which makes sense, since I've never been this close to the Equator before)! It was amazing... I could swear that I both took photos and videotaped it, but both seem to have disappeared :(<br /><P><br />Next day it was time for some scuba diving. I had decided to do two adventure dives, which would certify me as an advanced diver, rather than an adventure diver. Other than the compulsory navigation dive, I decided to do a wreck dive as the other adventure dive, since there's a sunken sugar transport near the island. I spent the first couple of minutes in the water getting used to breathe though a regulator again, and then we started our little adventure. It was very different from the dives I did in Australia. Obviously because it was at a wreck, but the aquatic life was quite different as well. Saw quite a few Lion Fish (spiky poisonous bastards), about one billion Barracudas and more. But the coolest thing was probably just the fact that I was swimming around a shipwreck! The highlight of the dive was when swam into an air pocket underneath the boat, where we could talk to each other and all... Awesome!! The visibility was all right most of the dive, except for a couple of minutes where it was about a metre. Couldn't even see my own fins :-D Next day I did my navigation dive, which was a lot easier than I thought. My sense of direction sucks, and it sucks even more under water, but it was pretty straightforward :) So I am now an advanced diver... Wohoo!<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Diving Panglima Abu 26.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Diving Panglima Abu 26.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>The following day I did another two dives - first one at a quite nice coral garden. But obviously, I forgot to bring my brand-new underwater housing :-S Eeeeeeeidiot. Finally got myself one at a cheap price in K.L., but it's kind of hard to take photo's when you leave the camera and housing at your hotel... Anyway, I brought it for the next dive! It was a really good dive, as we saw loads of special stuff, most remarkable <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Diving Panglima Abu 18">Stingrays</A>, actually about seven or eight of them! Some of them were missing their tails for some reason, like the one on the picture. Really weird. And as you can see, we saw quite a few <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-26 - 2006-10-01 Perhentian Islands/Diving Panglima Abu 22.jpg">Nemos</A> (aka Clown Anemonefish) as well. But there you go, my first underwater photos. I'm not super pleased with them, but I guess everything comes with practice :)<br /><P><br />The brits Jim left a couple of days earlier than I did. I stayed a bit longer, as I did my diving and generally loved staying on the Perhentians :) It has a true island atmosphere, where no one rushes, everyone is open-minded and relaxed, enjoying life... <br /><P><br />What a great place. Guess life isn't too bad after all :)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1162319301438882822006-11-01T07:24:00.000+13:002006-11-14T01:27:54.087+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/kamera bmp4.bmp" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>I'm in Asia!</B><BR><br />21st - 26th of September 2006<br /><P><br />I <B>did</B> it. I actually left Australia and went to Asia! After an extremely long flight, sitting in the middle seat, squashed by a big fat Bosnian dude with absolutely no manners, I set foot in Malaysia. First thing I thought when I got out of the plane was "<I>Holy... This is a big airport</I>", and truly, Kuala Lumpur airport is absolutely HUGE. It has a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Aerotrain.jpg">train</A> inside to transfer people from one terminal to another etc. Anyway, after a couple of kilometers, going though customs, immigration etc. I found a cab, a big clumsy, but luxurious Ssangyong, with a very polite driver called me <I>sir</I> etc. After a good hour worth of driving on huge five lane roads, getting lost even though they claimed to know where my hostel was, I was finally at the Red Palm hostel, a place a girl in New Zealand recommended me ages ago :) The hostel turned out to be just as nice as she said it was, so that was all good. Went one block down the road and grabbed some food and a CARLSBERG from a sidewalk cafe... Haven't had one of those in eight months! Ate some food I had no idea what was, relaxed for a few hours and went to bed. Zzzzz.<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/City Snap 02.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/City Snap 02.jpg" align="left" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Next day I went for a walk in K.L. so see what's what. My mission was to find the Masid Jamek mosque, which was easier said than done when you've never experienced the traffic in K.L. before! Coming from very pedestrian friendly Sydney, I found it absolutely INSANE - <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/City Snap 02.jpg">scooters</A> everywhere, driving in all directions, crossing the traffic lights no matter what color is is etc. - and the car drivers, especially the cabbies, were all psycho axe murderers behind the wheel as well. It was pretty stressful, I actually went completely <B>nuts</B> and started to hate the world ;-) But after a (dirt cheap) ice cream from 7-11 I was all good again. Didn't manage to find the mosque, but I found some other <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/City Snap 05.jpg">cool buildings</A> with domes. <br /><P><br />Pretty much no matter where I was, I could always spot the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/KL Tower 12.jpg">KL Tower</A>, so I decided to check it out. Between all the noisy cars I actually managed to spot some <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/City Snap 06.jpg">good scenery</A> on the way. After a walk up the hill, I reached the bottom part of the tower, bought a ticket and went into the ear-popping elevator. <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/KL Tower 05.jpg">The view</A> from the top was quite good, but as you can see on the picture, it is quite hazy (most experts claim the haze is caused by forests getting burned in Indonesia) - but it still gave you a good opportunity for a bird's eye view of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/KL Tower 07.jpg">the modern city of K.L.</A> They also had some really good headsets which gave you a proper introduction to all the sights in Kuala Lumpur. Except for the haze, the only annoyance I had at the viewing deck was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/KL Tower 09.jpg">massive tourgroup</A> who looked like a bunch of boy/girl scouts, as they all wore the same type of shirt :)<br /><P><br />When I had solid ground under my feet again I went for a walk in the little <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/KL Tower 06.jpg">forest</A> next to the tower. I actually went on <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Forest Walk 1.jpg">the walk</A> because I wanted to see some monkeys, but I didn't manage to spot one, but they were definitely there, making funny noises and shaking the trees. For a forest in the middle of a big city, it was quite beautiful. After a while I started getting bit to sh*t my mozzies, so I had to flee :O) Got lost on the way back to Red Palm, but eventually I found it. Spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out at the hostel. Had a good chat about diving with Remee, a dive instructor from Switzerland, met a few new people, four brits and an American guy who arrived at night.<br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Petronas Twin Towers 5.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Petronas Twin Towers 5.jpg" align="left" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400"></a>Next day, I went for a walk with <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Pouring Rain 4.jpg">Reena Naim, Micha and Vinnie</A>, the four brits who arrived the night before. It was raining though... or rather, it was <B>pouring</B>! But we were up for an adventure, so we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and went outside! We were meant to go to Chinatown for lunch, but while we were on our way, Naim had a phone call from a friend who told us Chinatown had pretty much shut down because it was flooded. We had tremendous fun though, we got absolutely SPLASHED by a few cars, since the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Pouring Rain 6.jpg">road</A> was covered in about 200 mm of rain, everywhere the water level was at least <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Pouring Rain 4.jpg">angle high</A>. If you think I'm joking, have a look at <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Pouring Rain.wmv">the video</A> in the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/">gallery</A>. Anyway, we ended up having lunch next door to our hostel :O) This was the first time where we tried the Malaysian way of making fresh juice - they heat it up/boil it and fills it with ice cubes, which results in a really funny sudden change from warm to cold. Pretty special. The selection of food and drinks in Malaysia is awesome. <br /><P><br />In the evening, we went to the flash and fancy part of town to see the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Petronas Twin Towers 5.jpg">Petronas Twin Towers</A> by night! Holy... The Petronas is without doubt the most amazing piece of architecture I have ever seen in my life. Such a stunning sight, the completely lit 452 metre tall pair of towers - wow. We had dinner in a little cafe on the way back to our hostel, had several dishes each, ordered extra drinks... And pissed ourselves laughing when we saw the bill. It was about RM40 (64 DKK/9 AUD) for the four of us... Asia is great, huh?<br /><P><br />Speaking of massive buildings, K.L. has some ENORMOUS shopping centres! We are talking 10-15 or more floors completely packed with shops. The brits, Jim and I went to one of the biggest ones, Time Square. The reason we went there was not because we wanted to go to any of the shops, but because we wanted to check out an attraction inside the shopping centre... And indoor fun park! We expected this to be a silly little kiddie playground or so, but we were completely surprised when we saw the place. The roller coaster we came for a ride was a lot bigger than expected as well - in fact, it had two loops and two corkscrews!! Absolutely crazy for something that's placed inside a shopping centre! We went for a couple of other rides and the whole visit was a huge laugh :-D Except the last ride we did... The DNA Mixer. All of us, except for the Vinnie (bastard), felt sick afterwards, especially me, so I was sitting on the floor all by my self looking pale for about half an hour before I was able to walk properly again :O) I didn't bring my camera, but I'll get Vinnie to send me the photo's so I can put them on the blog. <br /><P><br /><a HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 04.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Batu Caves 04.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400"></a><br />Another great sight in Kuala Lumpur is the majestic <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 02.jpg">Batu Caves</A>. The big 272-step staircase next to the huge <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 07.jpg">Buddha</A> takes you to some amazing big <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 18.jpg">limestone caves</A>. I've got to admit though, being a big animal lover (no... not like that, lol), my attention was caught by all the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 09.jpg">monkeys</A> at the Batu Caves! They were so funny - jumping around doing the funniest stuff - e.g. <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 11.jpg">eating stolen bread</A> (they actually tear it out of peoples hands) or <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 12.jpg">drinking Coke</A>! I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw the Coke-drinking monkey (<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves - Coke Drinking Monkey.wmv">video</A>). They are amazing little creatures... One of them even had a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 23.jpg">baby</A>! Very cute. Batu Caves was a great little spot, it had three of the things I look for when I travel, all at the same time (just like Kinder Egg!) - amazing nature (the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 15.jpg">caves</A>), wildlife (the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 32.jpg">monkeys</A>) and finally a bit of culture, as the last cave had a a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 25.jpg">Hindu shrine</A> in it!<br /><P><br />Other than that, I just spent my days in K.L. hanging out with <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/Batu Caves 22.jpg">the brits</A> and Jim. It's quite funny to hang out with them as, being white, because Vinnie and Reena are originally from India, Naim and Micha from Bangladesh and Jim's Chinese - which makes us look like a group of locals taking some weird white dude (me) for a tour round K.L. :O) One night in Chinatown, Jim and I had fun trying to bargain the price on the same stuff - Jim got a lot better price as he speaks Chineese :O) I also spent a bit of of time hanging out with Remee, the dive instructor, and we went to Mid Valley, the biggest shopping mall in South East Asia Anyway, as it had a dive shop! Found myself some <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-21 - 2006-09-26 Kuala Lumpur/My new fins.jpg">fins</A> for my upcoming dives, for a decent price! Wee. But... enough said about K.L. - it's been quite fun, this city has a lot to offer... And the Red Palm is the coziest place I've ever stayed! Next stop is the Perhentian Islands, where all six of us (Jim, the brits and me) are going!<br /><P><br />I've definitely had a good start in Asia so far.The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1160156895418042552006-10-07T06:46:00.000+13:002006-11-14T01:27:54.021+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT" title="Browse the gallery for pictures related to this post!"></A><B>Home in Sydney</B><BR><br />16th - 21st of September 2006<br /><P><br />Final stop in Oz... Sydney - for the fourth time!<br /><P><br />It felt right when the plane started it's descent, and the lights of Sydney by night started to appear. Felt like coming home actually :-) Just like the past three times in Sydney, I chose to stay at Base Backpackers in the CBD, which gives you pretty much everything within walking distance. <br /><P><br />Spent the first couple of days enjoying that I was back! It was actually awesome to be back in Sydney. Having spent about a month in the city, I know the area and know where all the spots I like are :) So I spent the most of my time seeing it all again, went to some of the few million shops, browsing for books, comics and stuff, and just enjoyed how much this beautiful city has to offer (maybe I should start writing tourist brochures?). <br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Bondi1.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Bondi1.jpg" align="left" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>On top of that, the weather was really good! Obviously not hot like tropical Darwin, but surprisingly hot compared to the fact that spring had barely started. First morning we had about 24 degrees, which kept going for a couple of days until we reached 28 degrees! As I had expected to freeze my arse off, I was quite happy with the weather :O) This called for a trip to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Bondi1.jpg">Bondi Beach</A>! So the next day, I went there with Miangaly, a French/Madagascan girl from my room. This being very early spring, you would expect a beach to be quite empty... But no, Bondi was crowded as always, and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Bondi1.jpg">the waves</A> were big as always, so the surfers were there... as always :) The water was freeeeezing compared to Darwin, but it was kind off like going to the beach in Denmark in the summer :-D Hehe. <br /><P><br />Despite the fact that I've spent quite a bit of time in Sydney, I still had some stuff left to do! One of them was the famous Bondi to Coogee walk. So Mia and I started walking, a bit late in the afternoon though, so it turned too dark to get proper pictures though... Sorry! But the walk was <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Bondi to Coogee walk04.jpg">stunning</A>! You could sit there for hours watching the waves hit the rocks... Both of us decided to buy one of the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Bondi to Coogee walk06.jpg">apartments</A> when we win the lottery :O) After quite a long, but enjoyable walk we jumped on a bus back to the CBD and our hostel. We went out at night, started out in picturesque <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Darling Harbour.jpg">Darling Harbour</A>. After a feed in Chinatown, I gave Mia a tour around the colourful quarter of Kings Cross. We had a good laugh at all the funny people, pressed our noses flat against the windows of the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Kings Cross1.jpg">Ferrari showrooms</A> and went for a walk in the old <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Kings Cross3.jpg">red-light district</A> before going to the Empire Hotel for a couple of drinks.<br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Sydney Harbour17.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Sydney Harbour17.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>Next day we went on the compulsory highlight when you're in Sydney, which is also my personal favourite: <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Sydney Harbour10.jpg">Sydney Harbour</A>! Even though I've been here about seven times, I still get blown away by the sight of the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Sydney Harbour17.jpg">harbour at night</A>, with the bridge, all the lights and of course the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Sydney Harbour19.jpg">Opera House</A>. Oh, by the way - we went to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art as well! Some of the stuff was really nice and interesting, and some of it was a load of bullsh*t, as contemporary art tends to be sometimes. For instance exhibition of plasma screens showing random video clips from <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Contemporary art.jpg">a bathroom</A>. What a talented artist... Took one picture to prove how ridiculous it was before I was asked not to take photos. Maybe they could have made it a bit more interesting by having some women in the shower or so... But no. You have to be on some special kind off drugs to understand that kind of "art" I guess :O)<br /><P><br />Mia left the next day, and I decided to go for a ride on <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Monorail2.jpg">the monorail</A>, since I forgot to check it out the last three times I was here... Hehe. It was all right, good views of Darling Harbour etc., but I did find myself wondering how they can afford to keep it going when there's only about one kilometer from the first to the last stop. Being completely restless in the evening, I went to the Sydney Imax to redeem a few vouchers. Saw a quite cool 3D movie about Africa and another documentary called Deep Sea 3D, narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, which was quite good as well. Before heading back to Base I had my last kebab - probably not a whole lot of kebab in Asia :O)<br /><P><br />To be honest with you... I was completely sentimental on my last day in Sydney, my last day in Australia! I couldn't believe that I was about to leave the country... My second home :) All I did was walk around the city feeling really weird... Went to the gym for about an hour, grabbed my stuff from the locker and jumped on the airport shuttle. When I got to the airport I realized that I still had the axe attached to my backpack (I was going to pass it on to Nick and Zac, but forgot about it when I left them :S), so I looked for backpackers who just arrived. Obviously no luck since I was in the departure terminal, so I found one of the shuttle bus drivers and asked him to drop it of at a hostel or ask if someone with a camper van or so needed it. No need to ask though, because I had only found <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/New owner of THE AXE.jpg">the new owner</A>! The nice bus driver was so happy that he just got an axe for free, he shook my hand several times and drove away with a big smile on his face. So OJ and Devo... The axe lives on! Let's just cross our fingers that he doesn't kill anyone with it, since it has our names written on it ;-) <br /><P><br /><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/aus1.gif" WIDTH="257" HEIGHT="197" BORDER="0" ALIGN="right">Anyway, my very last hours in Australia... Spent quite a lot of time in a massive queue at the Austrian Airlines desk (rubbish flight company), and got a middle seat even though I arrived early :( Last thing I did in Australia was go to the Virgin shop in the terminal, and listen to the new Audioslave album, which seems to be pretty damn good! So... I bid Australia farewell for now and boarded the plane, still not believing that I was about to leave the country I love. Seven months have passed unbelievably fast, and I've the time of my life. I gotta find myself an Aussie wife and get a PR :O)<br /><P><br />So long, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-16 - 2006-09-21 Home in Sydney/Plane take-off.jpg">Aussieland</A>... I'll be back as soon as possible ;-)The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1159567188745819562006-09-30T09:59:00.000+12:002006-11-14T01:27:53.956+13:00<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/"><IMG SRC="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Cam.jpg" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="RIGHT"></A><B>Back in Darwin</B><BR><br />12th - 16th of September 2006<br /><P><br />The night we came back from Kakadu, i went to the Vic with Sandra and Claire, the worlds happiest Belgians, where we met up with JJ, a really cool guy who works as a S.W.A.T. instructor back in Germany and Mark, one of the few Americans who has a passport! Kinda crap that we were the only ones from our group who showed up, but we had quite good fun anyway. Later on we went to Shenanigans, and Irish pub near our hostel, where we ran into "Club Germany", Volkmar, Sebastian and Thomas from the group. Good times...<br /><P><br />Next day I didn't do a whole lot... Hung out with Sandra and Claire, lazed by the pool and enjoyed the weather. On Thursday I decided to go to the Mindil Markets again, this time with <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Hexagonal Pool Table1.jpg">Stephen</A>, a Swiss guy from my Uluru tour, and his cousin. Saw <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Mindil6.jpg">eMDee</A> again (I actually <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/eMDee.wmv">videotaped</A> them as well), plus another <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Mindil5.jpg">didgeridoo band</A>. On my way out of Maleleuca (my hostel) I suddenly saw two faces I had seen before in the reception... Two girls from my home town in Denmark! Camilla and Pernille from my year group in high school... How weird is that...! Turns out they actually both work at the Vic. Thought I saw a girl who looked like Pernille in the bar the other day, but I didn't really take a closer look since you run into people who look like people from home quite often. But what do you know... It's a small world after all :)<br /><P><br />Friday I decided to go to the War Museum of Darwin to learn a bit of history. Jumped on a bus and went way to far... Oops. Waited for the next bus going the other way and jumped of "near" the War Museum, which turned out to be quite far away from the bus stop. But what... No rush, so I started to walk along the coast, enjoying <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Coastal Walk02.jpg">the view</A>. Eventually I reached the East Point Reserve, a conservation area with a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Coastal Walk04.jpg">swimming lake</A>, the war museum, wallabies etc. I kept walking, walking and... walking. I started feeling really dehydrated and couldn't believe I hadn't made my way to the museum yet, so I decided to ask a guy who was unloading some stuff from his car. Turned out that I was going the right way, but I had another two miles to go. <I>Crap</I>, I thought, and asked if there were any buses or other forms of transport. No buses, but then the guy offered me a ride to the museum in his smashing BMW 540i! How cool is that - he wasn't even going that way. Turned out he had done quite a bit of travelling himself, and he gave me a lot of good advice and recommendations about travelling in Asia. Sweet as!<br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum01.jpg" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Nazi.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a>By the time I was at the museum, I only had 40 minutes left before they shut. I went in anyway, and for once, had a exciting and fascinating experience in a museum! For once, it wasn't the typical dry exhibition, but a good mix of artifacts from the war, for instance an old <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum01.jpg">Nazi flag</A>, a Japanese soldier's <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum02.jpg">Holy Bible</A>, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum03.jpg">bombs</A>, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum10.jpg">small</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/War Museum06.jpg">big</A> weapons etc. Saw a bit of a really good video about the bombings of Darwin, composed of illegal film clips from the actual war. Pretty good museum!<br /><P><br />As they didn't have busses going the other way either, and I didn't meet any nice Aussie who offered me a lift, I started walking back. The walk was more enjoyable this time though, since it wasn't so bloody hot and since I walked on the beach this time. Heaps of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Coastal Walk07.jpg">rocks</A> to check out, <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Coastal Walk10.jpg">boats</A> and a brilliant <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Coastal Walk12.jpg">sunset</A> view (have a look in the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/">gallery</A> for more good sunset photos), which made the 8-10 km walk practicable. <br /><P><br />Saturday morning I packed all my crap and went for a last dip in the pool before I had to make my way to the airport. I met quite a few Danes as well, so I thought I probably had picked the right time to leave Darwin - didn't come to the other side of Mother Earth to meet Danish people :-)<br /><P><br />Bye-bye <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-12 - 2006-09-16 Back in Darwin/Plane1.jpg">Darwin</A> - I'll be back!The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1158515847049398412006-09-22T04:57:00.000+12:002006-11-14T01:27:53.549+13:00<B>Kakadu National Park</B><BR><br />10th - 12th of September 2006<br /><P><br />After a couple of relaxing days in Darwin, it was time for my Kakadu <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5692.JPG">4WD</A> tour!<br /><P><br />First thing we did after a bit of gravel road racing was jump on a boat for a cruise on the billabongs of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5698.JPG">Mary River Wetlands</A>, where we saw crocs, both <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5702.JPG">salties</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5715.JPG">freshies</A>. Other than the crocs, the billabong had an amazing concentration of wildlife, mainly <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5706.JPG">birds</A>. After lunch we headed towards Nanguluwur art site to have a look at some really cool aboriginal rock art. My favorite was <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5747.JPG">this one</A>, a rock painting with a whitefella drawn with his hands in his pockets. Then we climbed <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5778.JPG">Ubirr</A>, a big cliff sorta thing with an awesome 360 degree view! Since we had the view of five different types of habitats, the scenery changed completely from <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5764.JPG">one side</A> to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5765.JPG">the other</A>. After collecting firewood, we set up our swags and got a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5782.JPG">fire</A> going at the Jim Jim Falls campground.<br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5836.JPG" title="Press for a bigger version of the picture"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/IMG_5836.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400"></a><br />Next morning we went for a bumpy <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5795.JPG">4WD tour</A> across a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5802.JPG">river</A> to Twin Falls. We went for a bit of a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5814.JPG">climb</A>, which was a bit of a challenge for me, since I was wearing flip-flops (my shoes are still in Adventure Tours' lost property box somewhere). Eventually we made it to the top and had quite a good <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5826.JPG">view</A>. We stayed at the top of Twin Falls and went for a short walk to a nice little <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5860.JPG">swimming spot</A>. After yet another walk, this time down the hill, we jumped on a boat for a short <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5884.JPG">river</A> cruise to the bottom of the 70 metres high <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5895.JPG">Twin Falls</A>. After a couple of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5901.JPG">group photos</A>, we headed back and drove to the bottom of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5906.JPG">Jim Jim Falls</A>, the highest straight-drop waterfall in Australia (about 200 metres). As you can see on the picture, there isn't much of a waterfall to see as it dries out in the dry season :O) It was still worth going though, because there was a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5910.JPG">huge pool</A> at the bottom. On top of that, Andy (our guide) had promised to show me a couple of cool spots for <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/CIMG2799.jpg">cliff</A> jumping! Climbing the rock to the point you jumped from was a bit scary, but the jump was definitely worth it! JJ, a German guy from our group, took a photo of me when I jumped, but I'm waiting for him to e-mail it. We also had a visitor when we were sitting on the rocks enjoying the sun - a little <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5914.JPG">tree snake</A>. <br /><P><br />Next day we went to <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5935.JPG">Barramundi Gorge</A>, the coolest swim spot I have ever seen! It had a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5932.JPG">little pool</A> where you could dive in and swim though a hole to pool next to it and even better: More <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/CIMG2830.jpg">cliff jumps</A>!! The one I'm doing on the picture is about eight metres, it had a five meter jump as well... and as Andy showed us... a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5930.JPG">~20 metre</A>! Maniac :O) Take a look in the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/">gallery</A> for videos. We spent a couple of hours at Barramundi Gorge, having a wicked time! Just before we headed back to Darwin, we stopped to take a look at a massive <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-10 - 2006-09-12 Kakadu NP/IMG_5947.JPG">termite mound</A>, about 70-80 years old.<br /><P><br />Sadly, good times came to an end, and we had to make our way back to Darwin. I had a brilliant time in Kakadu, our group was great and Andy turned out to be quite a cool guide in spite of the fact that he sounded like the donkey from Winnie the Pooh when he introduced himself the first morning :O) Kakadu is definitely on my Australia top ten!The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1158774154807562992006-09-21T05:42:00.000+12:002006-11-14T01:27:53.894+13:00<B>Jumping Croc Cruise</B><BR><br />9th of September 2006<br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise21.jpg" title="Waaaaaaaarggghhh!!!!!"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Croc Cruise20.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400"></a><br />Zac, Nick and I had decided to go on a <I>Jumping Croc Cruise</I>, since it sounded pretty wicked...!<br /><P><br />We left Darwin about lunchtime and headed towards Adelaide River on the <I>Crocodile Express</I> bus, which has the highest concentration of crocs in Australia! We had a few stops on the way. First one was at some <B>massive</B> dams, which are actually a part of an old abandoned rice growing project! Long story short, a few decades ago, the government wanted to show the bloody Asians that they weren't the only ones who could grow rice, so they started this <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Rice3.jpg">HUGE</A> project (see the hill ranges in the background? That's how far the dam goes) - a couple of large dams which created a swamp-ish kind of thing. Then they started planting rice like the Asians, but it turned out to be a big flop, since the wet season drowned the rice (an example: the rivers rise more than 16 metres when the wet season starts!), the rice started rotting before they packed it etc... Eventually they gave up and left the dams as they were, and it actually ended up as a massive wetland for all sorts of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Rice1.jpg">water birds</A>, crocs etc. So for once, something manmade did the wildlife a big favour. I'd say we saw about a billion birds...<br /><P><br />Next stop was a little exhibition, which explained a lot about the ecosystems in the tropical NT etc., and had a great 360 degree view. 2 minutes later, we arrived at the river! Before we went on the boat, we said hello to a couple of <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise02.jpg">snakes</A>! The one I'm playing with on the picture is a Carpet Python called Mat... Muahahahaha... Pure Aussie humor!!! They had a Diamond Python called Neil (like Neil Diamond) as well :O) <br /><P><br />Finally, it was time to jump on the boat! And we were lucky, since we were a small group of people, we went on a lot smaller boat, which meant you could pretty much touch the crocs... In case you were tired of one of your arms or so :) Didn't take more than a couple of minutes before the first croc was <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise05.jpg">approaching</A>. What they did was attach a piece of meat to a string on a stick, and then use it to make the croc try to grab it, as shown on the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Jumping Croc.wmv">video</A>. First one actually got bored and took off, but most of them managed to grab their dinner doing a <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise14.jpg">jump</A>. Quite amusing! The concentration of crocs on the river was crazy. They were all over the place, both on the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise09.jpg">banks</A> and in the water. We got really close to a four metre big <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise15.jpg">fella</A> who was too busy sun tanning to move. They also fed kites by throwing little pieces of meat up in the air to make them catch it - impossible to take photos of, but it was quite interesting to see how they caught their "prey" each time as if it was the easiest thing in the world. We got a bit of a bonus when a sea eagle was flying above us, fighting one of the kites. The guy with the food managed to make it <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise18.jpg">dive</A> for a free steak - wauw. On the way back, we met a 70-year old croc, named <I><A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-09 Jumping Croc Cruise/Croc Cruise19.jpg">Hannibal the Cannibal</A></I> by the locals. He was about six metres, which is PRETTY big, since they grow to an absolute maximum of 7 metres. Scary animal, but fascinating at the same time. Just think about the fact that crocs have existed on earth for more than 200 million years! That means that these guy's great*100000-grand-parents was hanging out with dinosaurs... Crikey!The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22721108.post-1158774135976664662006-09-21T04:22:00.000+12:002006-11-14T01:27:53.833+13:00<B>Darwin</B><BR><br />4th - 9th of September 2006<br /><P><br />Still one city left to explore before leaving Oz - up in the tropical north... Darwin!<br /><P><br />First morning in Darwin I followed Henriette to the bus terminal at 6:30, since she was going to the wild west coast with Stuart from our Whitsundays boat. Bid her farewell and went back to bed for a couple of hours :O) I only stayed two nights at Chilis, the hostel we checked into when we arrived, since Maleleuca, another hostel across the road, looked so much nicer! And it was! Most likely the best hostel I've stayed at in my 7+ months in Australia. It was brand new, had lockers and other nice facilities, nice staff and an <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Deck.jpg">awesome deck area</A> with two pools, a tub with a waterfall, bar etc.! Soooo nice.<br /><P><br />Darwin turned out to be one of my very favourite cities in Australia! It's probably the best place to do nothing... Spent quite a lot of time just hanging out, laying by the pool and that sort of thing - not the worst thing to do in 33 degrees, which we had pretty much all the time. Even at night the temperature rarely dropped to less than about 24 degrees, so you could jump in the pool at night as well - awesome :O) I was in the same room as <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Rasmus and Nick.jpg">Nick</A> and <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/The almighty Zac.jpg">Zac</A> from my Uluru tour, so I spent quite a bit of time with those two crazy Kiwis. We had a really funny old guy in our room as well! - A surgeon from Cape Town who worked for The Flying Doctors, had served during the war in Vietnam etc. - so we heard quite a few crazy stories etc. You do meet some quite interesting people when you're travelling :-)<br /><P><br />Darwin has a place called the Vic which does $1 meals for backpackers... So as you've probably guessed already, none of us could be bothered to cook! The meals were quite rubbish though, they looked a lot better than they were, and they were a bit too small. We found a solution quite quickly though - another pub, an Irish one nearby, did (better) $1 meals as well. So what we did was go for the $1 meal both places. Quite clever, aye?<br /><P><br />One day I was on my way to the gym, for the first time in quite a while, but as I had left my shoes on the Alice to Darwin bus (they fell of my backpack), they wouldn't let me use the free weights in thongs. Damn it. Instead I decided to go to the <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Gardens01.jpg">Royal Botanical Gardens</A> which was close at hand. Though the gardens weren't that extraordinary, it was still a cosy little spot. Quite peaceful. And by walking around the park and all the way back to our hostel I managed to get a bit of exercise anyway :) One afternoon Zac, Nick and I went for a walk to see some of the WW2 historic spots. Not that much to see, but we learned a bit about what happened to Darwin during WW2, saw some oil storage tunnels from the war (that they didn't manage to finish before the war ended) etc.<br /><P><br /><a href="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Mindil04.jpg" title="Popular Australian sport: Sunrise watching!"><img src="http://pluto.bananas.dk/~rapper/thumbnails/Mindil04.jpg" align="right" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300"></a><br />Twice a week, a big night market takes place on <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Mindil06.jpg">Mindil Beach</A>, where people watch the sunrise, buy all kinds of useless souvenirs, eat great food or watch some of the artists. Clearly, my favorite was <A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Mindil05.jpg">eMDee</A>, a band who mixed didgeridoo (<A HREF="http://rapper.bananas.dk/2006-09-04 - 2006-09-09 Darwin/Mindil03.jpg">four of them</A> actually) with bass, drums, a bit of vocals etc.! I've seen similar bands before, but these guys just did it so much better. Probably because they had four didges, and therefore were able to play four different notes instead of one. In fact, I liked it so much I bought one of their CD's. Sweet.<br /><P><br />Just realized that I didn't really take any photos in Darwin... Boo! <br /><P><br />I'll tell you a little fact instead: Darwin was named after a famous brain... Charles Darwin, who was a passenger on the boat that dropped the anchor off the coast of north Australia many years ago. Happy now?The Rasmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16958943749016439761noreply@blogger.com0